Sectoral training providers, which focus on in-demand jobs in specific industries, are having a moment—with broad support and a shout-out this week in The New York Times by Raj Chetty, the Harvard University economist who directs Opportunity Insights.
Year Up, one of the leading providers in this space, rebranded earlier this month. As Year Up United, the nonprofit seeks to be better positioned as a comprehensive suite of workforce development solutions. The new name more explicitly folds in the Year Up initiative Grads of Life, which advises employers on skills-first strategies, and the subsidiary YUPRO Placement, a staffing agency and public-benefit corporation.
“We are addressing both sides of the opportunity divide—employers in need of skilled talent and young adults in need of opportunity—and want to present ourselves as such,” says Ellen McClain, Year Up United’s CEO and president, who took the helm last year after serving as the group’s COO and CFO.
The group will lean into systems change at the local level.
“We intend to take the community-of-practice approach,” says Elyse Rosenblum, the founder and managing partner of Grads of Life. She points to the MassSkills Coalition, a broad group of employers, unions, academics, and workforce organizations that are working together on how to better hire, train, upskill, and retain workers. “That’s an example of the way we want to face the market.”
Year Up United has served roughly 45K learners and partnered with 250+ companies during its quarter-century history. Yet the last couple years have been challenging for the group and most tech-focused workforce education and training providers. Hiring has tightened, particularly for jobs in tech and IT. While recent four-year college graduates have felt the slowdown, breaking into careers remains harder for jobseekers without four-year degrees.
However, YUPRO Placement has seen a recent uptick and is now doing better with placements than it was at this point last year, says Michelle Sims, YUPRO’s CEO: “We are starting to see it open up.”
We talked with McClain about the work ahead for Year Up United and what the rebrand signals about where the unified organization is headed.
Q: Does this move allow Year Up United to do things it couldn’t do under the previous structure?
A: The rebrand is a reflection of what we’ve actually been doing. We are addressing both sides of the opportunity divide—employers in need of skilled talent and young adults in need of opportunity—and want to present ourselves as such. For nearly 25 years, we’ve led the charge in the skills-first movement, serving over 45K young adults in partnership with more than 250 corporate partners. Now, as Year Up United, we’re delivering comprehensive solutions that empower young people, connect them to real opportunities, and build communities committed to transforming business and driving lasting societal change.
We’ve always worked closely with Grads of Life and YUPRO Placement; as Year Up United, we’ll be able to offer employers a more seamless experience and they’ll know from the outset the full range of what we offer—access to skilled entry-level talent, ways to address skills gaps and hiring demand, guidance on implementing skills-first talent strategies, and more.
This comprehensive approach will not only help our corporate partners solve their broader talent needs, but it’ll also ensure greater success for our young adults as we continue building a skills-first ecosystem to end the opportunity divide. Now, even more of them will be going into corporations that aren’t just focused on hiring entry-level talent but on making sure they have the systems in place to increase the retention and advancement of that talent.
Q: Was AI a consideration in this decision?
A: AI was not a consideration for this decision. That said, AI is deeply embedded in everything we do—from introducing AI concepts in our training curriculum to using AI to match students with professional work experiences.
We recognize that AI is a factor in the world of work and will play a considerable role in shaping what the future workforce looks like. We are preparing our students to succeed in that workforce while also ensuring employers have access to talent that is well-versed in using AI tools. That means not only providing young adults with the right knowledge and skills, but also ensuring that they are comfortable in navigating an AI-enabled workplace and a world of work that is constantly evolving. Our professional skills training and workplace readiness curriculum is critical to that effort.
We want to make sure that young adults can thrive in an AI-enabled workplace, and at the same time, that employers have access to the guidance and expertise to create an inclusive environment for historically overlooked talent. This talent needs to be supported, mentored and sponsored, so they see what’s possible and know that they belong.
Q: Do you anticipate any shifts in overall focus during the next few years?
A: We are organizing ourselves to scale our impact. That means engaging more partners across more industries. Our market-focused, demand-driven approach will be enhanced by our new labor-markets insights practice, which will position us to identify new pathways and partners more readily.
Over the years, we have continued to innovate and evolve our business model. At the heart of everything we do is our workplace and career readiness curriculum, but here are a few examples of how our model is evolving:
We are developing Career Alliances that connect underrepresented talent trained by colleges, nonprofits, and workforce development organizations to industry roles. Our Life Sciences Career Alliance in Boston is a partnership between Year Up United and MassBio, where we are establishing a life sciences workforce intermediary to improve the connection between life sciences training programs, the talent they are training, and employers with job opportunities.
Also, we see a high potential for developing a sustainable “talent network” model that leverages existing community assets while drawing on Year Up United’s core skills of employer connections, work and career readiness programming, and coaching and retention support.
Already, we are providing career readiness training more broadly through our Career Labs offering for high schools, community organizations, community colleges and employers. Career Labs is a flexible, modular professional skills curriculum that offers participants valuable exposure to the skills, confidence, and mindsets necessary to advance their careers.
And through Career Connect, we are partnering with community colleges to bridge employer-student gaps. Our goal is to facilitate career-connected learning and empower large volumes of “opportunity talent” with skills and job prospects, aligning talent with in-demand opportunities and emphasizing the importance of associate degrees and certifications for entry-level roles.